Carl,

I'm glad that you enjoyed the piece and more so that it caused some interesting introspection. Like you, I've done some of the same things I criticise in this piece in the past and note that it's still not healthy. Positive change should be an ongoing requisite in our lives.

You write:
"Finally, a remark about words. Bonsai Today commonly uses the word "enthusiast" to describe the non-professional bonsai artist. Presumably this is a translation of a Japanese word that does not carry the negative connotations associated with "hobbyist?"
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I like the word "enthusiast" and use it often (even named my journal with it in its first incarnation). However, my point with the names was how we tend to avoid the term "artist," but discourage those who don't behave as artists. We paint ourselves into a seemingly neutral corner with terms like "bonsaiist," which we believe leaves us room to criticize those who don't do what "bonsaiists" are supposed to do - make trees and not buy them.

The term "enthusiast" is an excellent term and leaves room for just about everyone in our endeavor, but the behavior as exhibited by most organizations and many in online forums tends to more narrowly define what an "enthusiast" should be or do. Not good and it often smacks of hypocrisy.

I'm not sure that many us recognize it when we intellectually contradict ourselves and demonstrate this kind of hypocrisy. I know that I did not - and may still not in some instances. That does not make it right, however. Might be good to examine the issue once in a while. ;-)

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
http://www.bonsai365.com/ :: living bonsai every day
zone 8, Texas

Andy & Carl, this business about comparing bonsai shows to other endeavours is not all black & white..

We are ALL aware that the art of bonsai is rather different to the classical arts. The living aspect of the subject matter is what I refer to. This aspect is a given, we all realise it very shortly into our bonsaihood.

Further, this would also lead on to the idea that this difference could allow (or require) a different outlook on competition/showing. If the discipline of bonsai is so fundamentally different to other artistic disciplines, shouldn't the judging aspect be different too? The very fact that we even have judging in bonsai is different... you don't have the Mona lisa up against the Haywain or the temptation of St Antony in a painting competition, do you?

Regards,

Chris.

Thanks Chris,

You're right about some of these differences (your example of the Mona Lisa and The Temptation of St. Antony is particularly striking). However, note that there are two distinct forms of judged bonsai shows:

1. Artist competition - specifically to showcase the artists' best efforts and compare/judge them.

2. Judged bonsai shows - specifically to determine the tree(s) that have the greatest beauty, most impact, best composition, best overall effect, ...whatever.

The second incarnation of show is seldomly found. Too many characteristics of the former incarnation creep into the mix - to the detriment of the event. We seem to have trouble distinguishing the two and properly characterizing the aims of each one. I say that this is harmful to our endeavor.

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
http://www.bonsai365.com/ :: living bonsai every day
zone 8, Texas

Chirs, I thought about this issue carefully before posting my initial response, and indeed thought of nearly exactly that example (actually, I put the Mona Lisa head to head against Starry Night, but same deal).

I think the example is somewhat unfair. These are established masterpieces and for whatever reason, those don't get judged. But how do you make it as an artistic photographer or ceramic artist or sculptor or painter these days? In part, by winning repeated in juried art shows and competitions. Not that this argument helps me any, because here we seem to have something a bit more like bonsai, in that owners don't seem to enter these shows on the artist's behalf...bringing these arts closer to bonsai than I originally realized in their organization structure. This is a complex business, it appears.

What I do see is this. Even the very wealthy don't play these games just to show how much money they have. They want to be seen as having a particular talent or flair or insight in what they do, be it investing in the right baseball team at the right time, supporting with venture capital a scientific project that turns out to go big, or commissioning an up-and-coming composer to produce certain works. This applies just as well to bonsai. Suppose someone had money and had the ability to see that a stellar tree (say, one currently at auction in Japan) could be even better with a few years in the hands of master artist X. That person could make it happen - and should take just pride in the accomplishment of having done so!


Best regards,
Carl

What I am saying is that if there were a competition that had no rules about how long you owned the tree then basically it is just a competition on what is the most valuable tree you can buy.

dbz12fan,

So Kokufu-ten is a completely worthless show? So it is pointless to show beautiful bonsai and judge which one is best - from either/or a technical, artistic, beauty, etc... standpoint? So we'd be silly to put on such a show because the same tree(s) would win every time? So beautiful bonsai should not be evaluated on their own merits - only those of the owners or artists?

I'm baffled here.

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
http://www.bonsai365.com/ :: living bonsai every day
zone 8, Texas

A easy way to solve the problem is to have some competitions that you dont need to own the tree for any amount of time and some that you must own it for time.

My personal opinion is that a competition should show how beautiful the owner of the tree can make it.

I have always considered the best competitions to be the ones that the artists style at the show in a given amount of time. But that is my personal opinion.

I think as a generalization, the statements concerning the pervasiveness of this supposedly ill-founded advice in playing with stock first are overbroad. It would be equally, if not more remiss to suggest that a newcomer invest $100 or more in a developed specimen, furthering an equally pervasive idea that bonsai will thrive in the average office or living room environment. (Is it really the new owners' fault? Most people encounter bonsai indoors at shows and many "bonsai" are sold indoors at stores and malls.)

Too many newcomers get turned off by failures. At most every show I attend, I hear exclamations of "I had a bonsai, but it died." from an attendee. I don't think I have ever overheard anything like that in an art gallery or antiques house! When I worked full-time in the corporate environment I would get about one dead or dying tree a month brought to my cubicle. I still have a collection of those plastic (!) figurines.

Unfortunately, the basic skills required to maintain a plant are not the ones best obtained through the efforts of trial and error on expensive material. For the same reason, we probably wouldn't offer our toddler a crystal Waterford sipper the first time she reaches for a cup.


It's easy to say that bonsai ownership should be more accessible to the average person, but it's not like buying a painting or sculpture where you can dust it off a bit if you have a mind to or put it on a stand in the living room. It's a bit more like owning a finely crafted wood motorboat or a horse that needs maintenance and exercise to remain at its peak. You can hire that done, too, but you can't neglect it.


Now, the owner probably also will need to water his new tree, and proper watering may well be the most difficult skill of all to learn. Improper growing environment and improper watering are to my experience the two leading causes of failure.

Most all of the forum registrants have already obtained a bonsai of some kind before they first post here. I can't speak for the casual reader, but from most of the new posts I have seen, they usually want to know how to maintain and improve what they have. It isn't wrong to suggest to those who do express interest in acquiring additional material that they can learn a great deal by working with container stock. While it isn't the *ONLY* way, it's certainly a viable option.

Regards,

Matt

Gosh Andy. I do think that this is about the first time that me and you have agree 100% on a subject.
How did that happen. We better get a grip. This can't happen too often. People will talk )

With a name like Saint I'm going to play devils advocate here....


I tend to feel very strongly about my trees that they are MY trees, I collected them and I style them. Yes I do get help from the teacher but he'll tell you that I don't like him cutting MY trees. I have several trees that I have gotten from other people including Arthur Atkinson and every one of them I have changed (some not as successfully as others I will admit) point was I made them MINE, I put my personal stamp on them, they are an expression of MY efforts.

As a result of this the thought of letting someone else style MY trees and then me taking credit for them would seem to me like cheating. If Mr. So and So made all of the aesthetic decisions on the tree and all I did was water and maintain, it's really his tree!

So maybe MY trees don't look anywhere near as fantastic as a Kimura, its MINE and I derive a great deal of pleasure from that.

Perhaps Andy does have something in that most bonsai competitions in the west are really artist competitions, that's okay. In Asia the opposite is true you can buy a Juniper for U$30,000 and win competitions from the next day, however if (in my wildest fantasies) I had that amount of money to spend on a tree I wouldn't, because it wouldn't be MINE, I'd just be maintaining someone else's tree.


.... and that's not why I do bonsai.